The Hybrid Mobile Application Development Technology

A hybrid mobile application development, as the term itself suggests, is the mix of two technologies: web development technology and native mobile application development technology. Hybrid applications are generally built using a native programming language, like Objective C or Java, and web technologies, including HTML5, JavaScript, and CSS.

The front-end part of every hybrid application is purely native. It is a thin native container that can be developed using any of the mobile application programming languages. Mobile developers need to build a different container for different platform. For example, Android supports native apps finished up with apk extension, iOS with ipa extension, and Windows Phone with xap extension. These are the formats of executable files that can be downloaded from app stores of Android, iOS and Windows Phone.

The rest of the part is a web application that is developed using web technologies. The web part is also based on the concept of Write-Once-Run-Anywhere (WORA) that means it will support all mobile devices, regardless of their operating systems. The web part of a hybrid app is accessed via internet but without the help of a web browser. A Hybrid application simply uses a web view control (UIWebView on iOS, WebView on Android and others) to present HTML and JavaScript files in a full screen. For this purpose, it uses the native web rendering engine Webkit that is used as the browser rendering engine in iOS, Android, BlackBerry and other devices.

A hybrid mobile application can use almost all the native features of a device. It can use camera, notification, contacts, calendar, offline storage and geo-location. It also supports the swipe, pinch and spread features of a touch-screen display. It can also simulate the look and feel of native application. For graphics, it can use HTML, Canvas and SVC. Depending on the type of a hybrid application, it can also work offline. For example, an online pool game app can also have an offline game practice feature.

Unlike web applications, hybrid applications can be distributed through app stores like Google Play, App Store (iOS), Windows Phone Store, etc. The native container of a hybrid app is published to be downloaded by users.

More and more app inventors or investors are choosing hybrid technologies to build mobile applications. A recent press release of Gartner predicted that by 2016, more than 50 percent of mobile applications will be using hybrid technology. The complete story is available in the press release "Gartner Says by 2016, More Than 50 Percent of Mobile Apps Deployed Will be Hybrid".